&60/ Stuart Scott Follow-Up

Phase 1: An official announcement by a Microsoft spokesperson. Not documented on www.microsoft.com. Merely a "(Former)" in front of the title CIO and a short note "Stuart Scott's employment at Microsoft ended in early November 2007" on PressPass. We bet this page will rank near the top for pageviews this month in Microsoft's internal Web analytics.

Phase 2: The whole online press and blogosphere cite and recite the announcement. No information added.

Phase 3: Enter the comedians and tale-tellers. Attended executive meetings wearing his iPod and using an iPhone, tried to convert internal servers to Linux, googled, had an affair with a subordinate, leaked secrets...

Phase 4: Time for outlook and analysis.

itWorldCanada - looking forward: "Microsoft has the opportunity with Scott's replacement to show its vast audience how someone with unparalleled IT resources can galvanize an organization with a reputation for sluggishness and so-so operational execution (like getting products released on time) into something other companies should emulate."

Computerworld - dismissing that same idea of a public hanging citing John Challenger: "When you're in a war to attract talent and the best and brightest executives, you wouldn't want to suggest that you could do something that would embarrass them."